


The Room the Lost Souls

by Aquatic_Beetles



Series: Marina Deetz: The Living Bio-Exorcist [1]
Category: Beetlejuice (1988), Beetlejuice - All Media Types, Beetlejuice - Perfect/Brown & King
Genre: Angst, Beej and Marina are just really good friends and would never have a sexual relationship, Body Horror, Childhood Friends, Demonic Possession, Exorcisms, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Imaginary Friends, Implied/Referenced Sexual Harassment, Mild Gore, Other, Self-Insert, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt, We really do be adding our own trauma in the fic, hhhh I promise this isn't as bad as the tags make it seem
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-08-14
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:21:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24022801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aquatic_Beetles/pseuds/Aquatic_Beetles
Summary: Meet Marina Deetz, the 14 year old daughter of Lydia Deetz. As long as she can remember, she has had an imaginary friend named "Mister Lawrence" but when she moves away from her old home, Lawrence vanishes. Will Marina ever be able to connect with her imaginary friend again? And is he really as imaginary as he seems?I would highly suggest not reading this one if you're under the age of 14, as there is heavier stuff implied to have happened in this one.
Relationships: Beetlejuice (Beetlejuice)/Original Character(s)
Series: Marina Deetz: The Living Bio-Exorcist [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1732861
Kudos: 9





	1. Reintroductions

The Deetz family had always had a strong connection with the supernatural. Marina was no exception. At the age of two she had made friends with a ghost that inhabited her childhood home, Mr. Lawrence, she had called him. He was a tall, fairly well groomed man with bright green hair and a fairly well kept black and white striped suit. Or at least that’s how Marina had seen him.  
However years later, when she and her mother, Lydia, had made the decision to move across the country to live with Lydia’s newly found boyfriend, Vincent, and his son, Michael, Marina stopped seeing her ghostly friend.  
She missed him, I mean how could she not, he had been her best friend for as long as she could remember. Although she had recently convinced herself that he wasn’t really a real ghost at all, but was instead just a figment of her imagination. That didn’t stop her from missing him though. In fact she couldn’t sleep a single night during the entire road trip from their old home in Connecticut to their new home in Washington. Lydia had taken notice of this of course, she didn’t want to make the same mistakes her father had made with parenting a child. She really tried to do everything within her power to help Marina feel more comfortable with the move.  
On the night before the final day of the road trip, Lydia had given Marina a brightly wrapped package, a present to help ease the fear of the move and the fear of having a new sibling. Marina was ecstatic, she had wondered what her mother had been secretly working on during the whole trip. She had only been able to catch glimpses of black and white striped fabric and some green fleece. She had been super excited to see what it was for. She impatiently tore away the sparkly purple wrapping paper and gently opened the box. Inside was a small plush doll that looked just like Marina’s “imaginary friend” had, every detail was there, his striped suit, his wild green hair, even the darkened circles around his sparkly black button eyes. Her eyes lit up with joy,  
“It’s Mr. Lawrence!! I love him mom!!” she exclaimed as she pulled the doll into a tight hug. “Mr. Lawrence, you and I are gonna have the best time together!” she said to the doll excitedly as she pulled the covers up around the two of them. “But first I think we need to have a good night’s sleep.” She murmured as she hugged him close. “Thanks Mom” she said as she drifted off to sleep. 

The next day, the two girls arrived at their new home. Vincent and Micheal greeted them at the door. Marina was nervous, she had never lived with anyone else before, especially someone who was about her age. She looked over at her mother, who didn’t seem to have much emotion on her face. Vincent must not have been exactly what she had expected. Micheal was looking at Marina and her doll with a look of pure jealousy, how come his new stepmother had only given his stepsister a new toy, even if it was one of the ugliest things he had seen.  
When Marina walked into her new home, and was shown her new room, which was painted pastel pink, with white lacy curtains on the window. There were cliche childish pictures hanging on the wall. Marina looked over at the bed, which was covered in faded blue bedsheets with a ratty looking teddy bear on the pillow. Marina picked up the bear, which had sun bleached, matted fur and scratched up eyes. It kind of creeped Marina out, which wasn’t the easiest thing to accomplish. She held her new doll close as she moved the ragged teddy bear to a shelf across the room. 

After a couple weeks Marina had settled into her new home. Vincent, Marina had found, was nice enough, I mean he had tried to help when Marina’s doll went missing, although he wasn’t able to find it. It was fairly obvious though that he and her mother weren’t exactly head over heels in love with each other though. Michael however, was another story, he had been either incredibly rude or incredibly… clingy. She didn’t particularly mind the rude days, but the clingy days, they just felt… off, like he was being clingy for reasons other than familial love. She tried to avoid him on those days. However on one dismal, rainy November afternoon, Marina found herself alone in a hallway with Michael. He walked over to her, with an almost predatory glint in his eyes. He wasn’t something she should be afraid of, he was two years younger than her and he most definitely wasn’t any stronger than her, however he was quicker. While Marina was lost in thought, he suddenly grabbed her hand and dragged her into a nearby closet. Afterwards… well that was all a terrible blur, all Marina could make out were her own feelings of fear and dread and Micheal’s hands grabbing her chest. After the ordeal was over and Micheal had left the closet Marina sat sobbing on the floor, her dress only half put on and her bra lying on the floor. Good lord why her. What had she done to deserve this? Was it something she had said? She just didn’t know. Suddenly she heard a familiar set of footsteps coming up the stairs, Micheal was returning. Marina hurriedly put her clothes back on and snuck out of the closet, down the hall and into the one room in the house she knew Michael would never go to, the attic. 

Marina closed and locked the door behind her and sighed. She was safe from Michael for now. The old, dusty room was filled with old boxes and books. There were sunbeams seeping in through the windows that seemed to be shining a spotlight on a long rope that was sitting on the floor.Marina immediately grabbed it and started tying it into a noose, she couldn’t live in the same house as her monster of a brother any more. It was too much for her to bear. As she was figuring out her knots, she heard a loud thump from the back of the attic.  
“Huh?” she jumped back, startled by the sudden noise. She got up from where she was sitting, and nervously walked over to where she heard the sound. She looked behind some boxes and saw a small pile of books. One of them seemed to have fallen off the top of the pile, a thick brown, leather bound tome with silver detailing on it. It was dusty, and looked like it hadn’t been touched in a long, long time. Marina picked it up warily and read the title aloud,  
“The Handbook for the Recently Deceased? What could this possibly be?” she whispered as she opened the old book. The book was filled with long droning blocks of text explaining hauntings and ghostly manifestation. As Marina impatiently flipped through the pages a small, off-white card fell from the pages. Marina’s eyes immediately darted from the pages of the book to where the card had landed, and she quickly snatched it up. She turned it over in her hands, on the other side there was what seemed to be a business card advertising some sort of… exorcist? It was strange, because there was no phone number or website to go to or call. There wasn’t even an address on it, just three bolded words. Marina looked down at the card, confused. It was strange, even more strange than some of her Grandmother’s statues. However strange it was, Marina felt compelled to say the three bolded words on the card. What would she even have to lose anyway? She was planning on being dead in a couple hours so might as well.  
“Beetlejuice.” she said with certainty, the business card started to glow.  
“Beetlejuice!” she spoke louder and louder,  
“BEETLEJUICE!!” The book on the ground flipped open and started billowing green smoke, green light started to fill the room and a raspy but somewhat familiar voice echoed from the smoke.  
“IT'S SHOWTIMEEEEE!!”  
The smoke cleared and a tall man in a grungy, mouldy, striped suit, with wild grimy, matted, green hair. He had feral, glowing yellow cat-like eyes that darted around the attic and suddenly they fixated on Marina.  
“Lydia? Is that you?” the man asked.  
Marina raised her eyebrows  
“Mister Lawrence, you’re a… real person?” Marina said, walking over and tugging on the man’s sleeve. “Do you remember me at all? I’m Marina.”  
The man’s eyes lit up “‘Rina?! Oh my god kid it’s you! How much time passed since I saw ya!” He gasped as he knelt down to see her,  
“Well… I guess it’s been a while huh?” Marina giggled “I mean I was still in elementary school when I last saw you!” she said excitedly as a huge smile spread across her face.. Lawrence smiled back, his huge fangs glinting in the afternoon light  
“And I hadn’t started growing mold on my suit yet!” he said with a deep, raspy, laugh as he gestured to the green patches on his suit jacket.  
“Mold!? On your suit? Mister Lawrenceee you should wash that off….” Marina whined jokingly, as she lightly hit him in the arm. “Oh! If only I still had the doll my mom made for me! He looked just like you Mister Lawrence, except he didn’t have the mold or dirt on him. But I think my step-brother hid him somewhere, I just really don’t know where he would have put it…. I-I haven’t slept at all since he disappeared.” Her voice faded to a sad whisper “You’d probably like him..”  
Lawrence’s ears perked up “Maybe I could help ya find him! I’m pretty good at findin’ shit!” he exclaimed. “So you’ve checked the rest of the house, right?”  
“Yeah pretty much. The only room I haven’t checked is…” Marina paused as if she had had an epiphany “The attic! I never checked up here in the attic!” she said excitedly. “He might be up here! I might see him again..I’ll be able to sleep again…” Marina burst into happy tears.  
“Alright ‘Rina, you just sit tight here, I’ll search the attic.” Lawrence said as he noticed the half finished noose and he gestured to an old couch by the attic door.  
“Are you sure Mister Lawrence? I’m fully willing to help you look for him!” Marina asked, not noticing what Lawrence had clearly seen behind her.  
“Trust me kiddo, you’ve clearly had a rough afternoon today, I can tell just from lookin’ at ya.” Lawrence replied, leading Marina over to the couch and kicking the half finished noose behind a pile of boxes in an attempt to get her to forget about it. “You just lean back and I’ll do all the searchin, short-stack.”  
After a couple of hours of watching Lawrence search every box in the attic, Marina finally heard a cheer of excitement  
“‘Rina! Commere! I think I found somethin!” Marina stood up and made her way to the back of the attic, where she finally found Lawrence looking at a faded, once loved, old red toy chest.  
“Well open it Lawrence!” Marina urged, grabbing Lawrence’s suit sleeve and jumping excitedly “He might be in there!”  
“Alright! Alright kiddo! Let go of me real quick so I can open it!” he said as he pulled his sleeve away playfully and he cracked open the chest. The chest hinges squeaked as he opened it. The light in the attic poured into the chest, revealing the old, well loved toys within. There were toy cars with chipped paint, action figures with missing limbs and pieces, and under all that some soft, black and white, striped fabric was visible. Marina immediately swept the other old toys and pulled her old doll out from the toy car abyss,  
“Lawrence! It’s him!! My doll!” Marina exclaimed as she raised the doll into the air, and then pulled it into a tight hug.  
“Damn ‘Rina, you’re really excited about this doll, huh?” Lawrence remarked as he watched Marina cuddle her beloved plush friend.  
“Oh yeah! Here do you wanna meet him?” Marina said as she led Lawrence over to the couch and sat him down. Lawrence sighed and smiled as Marina showed him the doll  
“Wow Short-stack, He… uh looks just like me... which is a lil creepy to be honest kiddo.” he sighed as he picked it up and examined it.  
“Lawrenceeee, you do realize that I thought you were imaginary for YEARS up until i just happened to accidentally summon you, hell I didn’t know you would be the ghost I summoned!” Marina teased.  
“I know I know….” Lawrence said as he handed the soft, plush doll back to Marina “To be honest I’m kinda glad he was there for ya when I wasn’t kiddo.” He eyed the unfinished noose that was behind the boxes “Speaking of being there…” Lawrence’s hair started to turn a deep purple at the roots as he spoke “...is there anything you need to tell me kid?”  
“What do you mean Mister Lawrence?” Marina replied, blatantly trying to act like she didn’t know anything. “Do you wanna talk more about my doll? Or is something bothering you?”  
“Marina. It’s not like I can’t tell that there was something wrong, I mean I SAW the noose back there”  
Marina paused. Fuck. He had seen that. She had really hoped he wouldn’t have.  
“It’s nothing. I...I…” she stopped, and her vision blurred as tears filled her eyes. “It was… my stepbrother, Micheal. He- he… forced me into the hall closet. It wasn’t the first time too…`` Marina attempted to explain, but Lawrence pulled her into a hug before she could finish.  
“Oh god… ‘Rina I… I had no idea…” He whispered as he held her close. “I swear to god if he ever tries to hurt you again… I’ll.. I’ll fuckin kill him.” Marina looked up at him, his eyes were filled with rage and his hair had turned from green to a bright, fiery, red.  
“Mister Lawrence as much as I hate him.. I don’t know if killing him would be the best option.” Marina said quietly as she clung on to Lawrence’s suit jacket. Even though he was angry, Lawrence was one of the few things keeping her grounded in the situation. The suit jacket she was clinging on to was like a lifeline for Marina.  
“Aww kid…” He said as he ran his fingers through her hair in an attempt to calm her “I’m sorry I startled ya a bit, I was jokin’. I promise I won’t kill anyone.”  
“Promise?” Marina whispered as she clung tighter onto the suit jacket.  
“Promise.” Lawrence reassured her. “I actually have a better idea than murder anyway.” he said teasingly. Marina lifted her head as he said those words  
“What do you mean Mister Lawrence?” she asked  
“Possession!” Lawrence exclaimed. “I can possess ya and we can haunt your house!”  
Marina jumped a bit when possession was mentioned  
“You can possess me?” she asked warily  
“Well… yes I can, any ghost can. However, in order to prevent our host, which would be you in this case, from feeling any pain or getting hurt, we have to get consent from the host.” Lawrence explained “If we don’t, well…. As long as the host is being possessed they’ll be in constant pain, which will get worse and worse as long as the host is bein’ possessed. But since you would be consenting to any possession with me, you won’t have to worry about any of that. All you’d have to worry about is runnin’ out of good scares.”  
“So what you’re suggesting is that you possess me and then we haunt my house?” Marina asked  
“Basically… yes.” Lawrence replied.  
“Well then do you think we can wait it out until my mom goes on her trip to New York in a couple days? Because I really don’t want her to get caught up in all this.” Marina asked quietly.  
“Well of course kid. Although I’m really gonna need to be able to check in on ya since you’re still living in the house with… that horrible kid.”  
“Of course Mister Lawrence. I don’t think I could really get through the next few days without you.” Marina replied as she smiled warmly and pulled Lawrence into a tight hug.


	2. The Haunting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marina and Beej use illusions and puns to haunt the hell out of Marina’s house.

As the next couple days passed, Marina found herself spending more and more time in the attic with Mister Lawrence. At first they just planned out how their future haunt was going to go, filled with scares and Lawrence using his powers to make the illusion of terrifying body horror with Marina. However eventually, the two ended up just hanging out and talking about all the things that had happened to the two of them while they were apart. Marina talked about her cross country trek, filled with odd roadside attractions, rest stops filled with creepy old men, and long nights riding in the car. She showed him all the wacky souvenirs she had gotten at all the cities she had visited. Lawrence laughed at all the funny pictures Marina showed him of her and her mom. Sometimes, in the late afternoons, when the sun would seep through the windows and create warm sunny patches on the floor, Lawrence would lay on the floor where the sun was warming it, eventually Marina and her doll would join him in the sun patches and the two would talk and talk until they both fell asleep. And thus, life was peaceful for a bit. At least until Lydia returned from New York with Marina’s grandparents, Charles and Delia. They were definitely an interesting couple, with Charles being a wealthy businessman, and Delia being an artist of questionable skill. Marina wasn’t too fond of either of them but particularly disliked her grandpa Charles, as he hated Marina’s more ‘childish’ tendencies and constantly criticised them. On the night before her grandparents flew in Marina was sleepless, even with her beloved doll by her side. So she decided to spend her time talking about her worries with Lawrence.   
“I just don’t understand his problem Mister Lawrence, he just seems to hate everything about me.” she said woefully as she laid against Lawrence’s chest, cuddling her doll close to her. “He’s just so uptight! He only wants me to act more like my grandma! It’s absurd!”  
“Ugh! I remember ol’ Chuck! He’s so fuckin’ uptight!” Lawrence groaned in reply, as he hugged Marina close to him, “Don’t listen to him though ‘Rina, his opinion doesn’t matter anyway.”   
The two kept talking until Marina eventually fell fast asleep hugging both her doll and the sleeve of Lawrence’s jacket tightly against her chest. Lawrence watched over her until he eventually moved her back to her bed and made his way back to the attic, where he had taken up residence.   
The next day was when the true chaos began. First, Lydia arrived home with her parents in toe, Delia had dumped a bunch of her hideously patterned suitcases into both Micheal and Marina’s arms as she greeted them, while Charles just glared at Marina until he turned to Lydia and asked   
“Has she started to… mature... yet? Like is she over that dumb ‘imaginary friend’ thing?” he whispered in a voice that was just barely loud enough for Marina to hear. She glared up at him, over the piles of suitcases Delia had dumped into his arms. Charles had always said things like that about her. He never changed.   
“You know ‘she’ can hear you, right grandpa Charles?” Marina said, with an angry pang in her voice. “And since you asked, no, I haven’t outgrown the ‘imaginary friend thing’.”   
“Marina! Don’t speak to your grandfather like that!” Delia interjected angrily   
“What? He’s the one who insulted me!” Marina retorted as she stormed off to the attic. She slammed the door behind her angrily and plopped down on the couch and sighed heavily. Lawrence appeared next to her with his hair turning a deep shade of reddish-purple.   
“‘Rina? What’s wrong short-stack?” he said as he put his arm over her shoulder, and patted her on the back.   
“It’s my grandpa again,” Marina sighed “He keeps talking about how dumb it is that I genuinely like to hang out with you…” she leaned against him “He doesn’t believe you’re real at all, so it’ll be kind of funny when we scare the shit out of him tonight,” Marina smiled a little bit as she said that.   
“Ha! ‘Rina I can’t wait to see the looks on their faces at dinner tonight!” Lawrence said, laughing heartily   
Hours passed with Beej and Marina spending the day practicing scares in the dusty old mirror. They practiced one-liners and jokes to pair up with the frights. The whole show was a frenzy of horror, theatrics, and sheer spectacle. Finally when it was finally time for dinner, and thus the haunt, to begin. Lawrence looked over at Marina, who was nerviously fidgeting with her doll,   
“Hey ‘Rina?” He asked, trying to be as soft as he could with his tone,   
“Yeah?” she replied quietly, looking up from her beloved toy.  
“I promise this’ll all be okay, you don’t have to be nervious, after all, your haunting partner is…” Lawrence gestured dramatically to himself while summoning a spotlight to shine on himself, “The ghost with the most!! Hell yeah baby!!” excitedly, he picked Marina up and held her bridal style.   
“Lawrence!!” she giggled happily, all former anxiety seeming to have vanished, “You’re so funny!”   
“You know it kid!” Lawrence replied, gently setting her down “Now let’s scare the shit outta some adults!”   
“Oh hell yeah!” Marina exclaimed, grabbing Lawrence’s hand in order to allow him to possess her. As the two held hands, Marina’s eyes started to roll back into her skull. Bright green lightning and green smoke swirled around her. That’s when Marina knew, this was possession. After a few seconds the smoke dissapated and Lawrence had disappeared, however, after a few miniutes, Marina could hear a raspy voice in her head,   
“Alright ‘Rina, let’s go haunt this fuckin’ house!” 

Dinner went fairly normal for the most part. The family sat together. Marina had her doll sit on a chair nearby, as she would normally did. Even though she wasn’t fully in control of her body, all seemed normal. Lawrence had her mannerisms down perfectly. During the meal, Charles would occasionally glance over at the doll, and then would give Lydia disappointed looks from across the table. The meal was awkward, but it went fine for the most part, until Charles made a single quiet remark,   
“Marina, your mom told me that you’re still very insistent on that imaginary friend of yours being real. I think we might need to get you professional help… it’s just not normal.”   
Marina’s eye started to twitch and her leg started to shake rapidly under the table. She was only able to keep herself under control for a couple moments before….  
CRASH!!   
The lightbulbs in all the kitchen lights simultaneously shattered and Marina let out an unholy scream, her eyes, which were normally a brownish-purple turned into a bright golden-yellow. Her pupils became more elongated and snake-like. She had fully given up control of her own body, now it was Lawrence’s turn to fully run the show.   
“OH FUCK YEAHHHH!! IT'S SHOWTIME BABY!!” She exclaimed. “Now I hope you all like magic tricks…” She unhinged her jaw like a snake, flicked a long fork like tongue over her fangs, and pulled out a whole rabbit skeleton “‘Cause this’ll be more than pullin’ a rabbit outta a hat!” She laughed maniacally as her family members stared up in horror.   
“Lydia! What the HELL is wrong with your daughter!” Charles yelled over the crashing of furniture and screams of terror, Marina suddenly turned her head to stare at him   
“Do you wanna see hell grandpa? I’ll show you HELL! I’LL SHOW YA THINGS THAT'LL MAKE YOU JUMP OUTTA YOUR SKIN!! LITERALLY!” Quickly, she grabbed her top lip and started to peel away all the skin and flesh on her face, exposing an inhuman skeleton underneath, her skull looked like some sort of canine’s but with massive horns growing from the forehead, her neck was elongated and snakelike the vertebrae twisting and turning as she looked around. She cackled, fully exposing the massive fangs she had “Well what do ya think? Is this enough for ya or is this scare a little… BARE BONED!! AHAHAHAHA!!!”   
The rest of the family was frozen in fear, except for Lydia. She had seen tricks like this before and deep down she knew that Marina just wanted the rest of the family out of the house, at one point she had felt the same way.   
“Mom, Dad, Vince, Maybe we should stay the night at the hotel in town huh?” She quietly suggested, however before anyone could answer, Michael piped up   
“Ya know, I always knew there was something… wrong with you Marina but I never thought you’d go as far as to make deals with the devil, or whatever this is!”  
Marina turned and let out a low, beast like growl.   
“If any of us had something wrong with them it’s you. But I won’t expose your sins here and now Micheal….” Suddenly the wallpaper in the kitchen morphed into hundreds of eyes, all staring directly at Michael. Marina scoffed and pulled her skin back onto her monsterous skull, she looked normal enough now, save for the unyielding rage burning in her eyes. She smiled exposing two huge, snakelike fangs, both dripping with venom and said in a voice so quiet only Michael could hear, “I’ll just let the guilt eat away at you for the rest of your life.” Venom dripped from her words, she clearly knew exactly what she was doing, “After all…” her voice changed, she didn’t sound like herself anymore, she sounded older, more masculine, and very gravelly, “That’s exactly what Marina would want me to do!” She laughed as Micheal scrambled away, terrified. As he ran, Marina suddenly grew a large, scaly, black and white striped tail   
“Now… GET OUTTA MY HOUSE!!” She yelled as she forced the rest of her family out. The haunt had worked.   
Lawrence materialized in front of Marina as she gained control over her own body again.   
“Mr. Lawrence!!! We did it!!”   
Lawrence laughed as he picked Marina up and spun her around   
“FUCK YEAH WE DID KIDDO!! You were fuckin AWESOME out there!!”   
“If anyone was awesome it’s definitely you! I mean all those illusions you made them see, and the way you threatened my brother, it was just PERFECT! It couldn’t have gone better!”   
Lawrence smiled and reached into one of his coat pockets   
“Oh and by the way, I made sure nothin happened to you lil friend here. I wasn’t takin’ any chances during the haunt.” He handed Marina her beloved doll which somehow had fit into his pocket? Marina didn’t fully understand but at that point she was too tired to care. The house was hers and she wouldn’t have to deal with her family ever again for the foreseeable future. Or at least that’s what she thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay on this y’all!! I had to finish up school and my mental health took a sharp dive. However I’m doing better now so I finished the chapter!


	3. Fear and Loss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marina and Beej relax in their newly claimed home only for things to go horribly horribly wrong

Things were relatively easy for the next week. Lawrence and Marina had the house all to themselves and were making the most of it. They had thrown a couple stuffed animal tea parties, and even though Lawrence would whine that he “didn’t want to be dragged to another tea party,” he thoroughly enjoyed spending time with his friend. They would stargaze on the roof at night and catch fireflies in the yard. Life was good.   
“You know what Mr. Lawrence?” Marina said one crisp Friday evening as the two watched the sunset on the roof   
“What’s up Mayfly?” He asked, ruffling her hair,  
“I’m glad we found each other again, I missed you so so much while you were gone.”  
Lawrence smiled at her, his golden catlike eyes softening as he looked at his friend.   
“I missed you too kid, I’m sorry I’m not the same demon ya left though.” He said with a sigh.   
“What do you mean?”   
Lawrence’s ears lowered as he spoke, his tone becoming less happy as he continued   
“Well when you first met me I was real.. ya know, cleaned up and chipper. And now well I’m-“ he gestured to himself   
Marina sighed and placed her hand on his   
“I think you’re perfect, even with all the moss.” She smiled as she spoke and leaned her head against his side. After a couple minutes of silence she spoke again “Hey Mr. Lawrence? Let’s never get separated again okay? I never wanna be without you by my side ever again.”   
Lawrence laughed and tousled Marina’s hair  
“I’m not gonna leave you ever. I promise.”   
They had the house to themselves for about a week, until late Sunday evening when the Deetzes along with Vince and Michael returned to the house. 

Neither Marina nor Lawrence noticed they had returned, the two of them were fast asleep in the attic blissfully unaware of what was coming. Delia entered the house first, with Charles, Vince and Michael all in toe. Lydia was the last, protesting against what they were about to do.  
“You KNOW this isn’t the solution! There are better, less permanent ways of fixing this!” She   
cried,in a desperate attempt to get the others to rethink what they were doing. Vincent turned around and spoke in a tone so serious that it immediately silenced her.   
“If your hellspawn of a child hadn’t summoned a demon we wouldn’t be here. This is the only way to get my house back. After all this is done, I want to give that kid a serious talking to.”   
“You’re not her parent Vincent. You know next to nothing about her.”  
“She summoned a DEMON Lydia!!”   
“You don’t understand why she did it!! Hell I don’t even know why!! But at least I can make a pretty decent guess!” 

As Lydia and Vincent argued, the others started setting up the dining room table. By the time they finished there was a pentagram of salt in the middle of the table surrounded by candles, in the middle was an old relic from when Lydia was younger, the soul box that had been used to almost exorcise Barbara. Along with an old drawing Marina had made of Lawrence. And thus with the setup complete, the ritual began. 

Marina was fast asleep in the attic, her head resting on Lawrence’s chest and her doll held tightly in her arms. She had fallen asleep to the steady rhythm of his snores and had grown used to hearing them in the background while she slept. So when the snoring disappeared and her head slammed against the ground, she awoke, the sudden eerie silence of the attic was deafeningly loud. She looked around frantically, trying to see if Lawrence had just gotten up or something. That’s when she heard some odd chanting from downstairs. She followed the noise down, fearfully calling Lawrence’s name, right up to the closed dining room door, which had a terrifying red light leaking out from behind it.   
Marina slowly and fearfully opened the door. Her eyes widened in abject horror as she saw what lay beyond. There he was, Mr. Lawrence, floating over the center of the dining room table, his hair a deep dark purple with streaks of white all throughout. Tears were streaming down his cheeks and his face was contorted almost as if he was screaming, a scream of fear and of immense pain. His jacket was fluttering in a whirlwind which seemed to be contained completely within the circle.   
Tears started to slowly drip down Marina’s cheeks as she ran up to the table.   
“LAWRENCE NO!” She cried out as she desperately reached out for his hand. But it was too late. With a loud crack and a blinding flash of light, Lawrence was gone, the only thing remaining was his suit jacket which lay abandoned at the center of the table. Slowly Marina gathered it up in her arms, clutching it close to her chest. She looked at her extended family members and step-family, who were all in the room around her, and her fear turned to red hot rage. “You’re all monsters and cowards! Every single one of you!” She spat, her deep purple eyes looking almost black in the pale moonlight. “You all can’t even let me have one friend can you?! No! You couldn’t work things out like adults so now he’s gone!” Her anger flowed through every single word “I’m leaving. I’m gonna get him back even if it means I have to die in the process! It’s not like there’s much here in the living world for me!”

She stormed out of the room and out onto the porch, as soon as she was out of sight of the others her anger gave way to pure unbridled grief. Mr. Lawrence, the only friend she had ever had throughout her whole life, was just violently torn away from her. As she sat on the doorstep tears started to fill her eyes, her body started to shake and she held the suit jacket tightly to her chest.   
“Oh Marina… I’m so so sorry…”   
Marina’s head shot up at the sudden noise, only to see her mother, sitting on a chair on the porch.   
“Mom… It’s Mr. Lawrence… they- they…” her voice trailed off into uncontrollable sobs.  
“I know kiddo. I know.” Lydia replied as she sat down next to Marina and held her in her arms. “I’m so sorry that I couldn’t convince them to stop. I tried my hardest.”   
Marina didn’t reply, she couldn’t speak through all her sobbing.   
“Come on Marina. Let’s get you to bed for the night, you can try to think of something tomorrow okay?” Lydia tried to console her.   
“But…”  
“No buts Marina. You need sleep” Lydia replied as she led Marina up to her bedroom. “Now you stay here while I go grab your doll from the attic, okay?”

As soon as Lydia left the room, Marina pulled the Handbook off of her bookshelf and flipped through the pages until she stumbled upon a page which had been dog-eared by the previous owner. It was filled with things to do in an emergency. Marina skimmed the page until she found what she needed. In order to follow the directions, she grabbed a marker from her desk and drew a big door on her wall. With the book in one arm and her doll, which she had sneakily hidden from her mother, in the other she knocked three times. The door opened and bright green light and deep dark green smoke started to pour out. Marina stepped through the door and it closed behind her. 

Lydia soon returned to Marina’s bedroom   
“Hey Marina did you hide your doll in…. here…?” There was no answer. Lydia looked around the room and sighed “Marina are you really hiding from me?”   
No answer.   
“... Marina?” Lydia slowly turned around, finally seeing the drawn on door and realizing where her daughter had gone. “Oh god Marina…”

**Author's Note:**

> So! The first chapter of the first arc of Marina's backstory is finally here! I hope this sheds some light on this character that has been appearing here and there on my other social media. I also really really hope you enjoy her! She's a character that I have used to deal with many of my own real life issues so she is quite near and dear to my heart.


End file.
